Protecting homes and other building structures from fire is a daunting task for homeowners and firefighters. While fire fighters have experience and equipment to stop fires once they have begun, they provide very little preventive protection and they must be notified and travel to the location of the structural fire. Integrated sprinkler systems and other fire prevention methods are commonly used in large commercial structures, but are rarely seen in residential structures due to the complexity and cost.
Additionally, wildfires frequently threaten people and property in residential areas. These fires can become so large and uncontrolled that there may be no professional firefighting assistance available in time to safe a home. Oftentimes, homeowners try to save their residences by using a garden hose to protect their roofs from falling embers. Disadvantageously, the homeowner can only cover a small portion of the total roof at one time and the water pressure may also be reduced due to other nearby fire fighting activities. Attempts to cover more area include U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,968, issued in the name of Orrange et al., describes a wildfire protection system comprising a plurality of rotating sprinklers which are temporarily places on roofs as needed and U.S. Pat. No. 6,929,072, issued in the name of Brown, which describes a roof soaking device and method comprising a base support for a sprinkler which is mounted to the roof of the building structure and is in fluid communication with a home water supply. Unfortunately, this places the homeowner at risk since they must remain outside until the threat of fire has passed and requires the placement and positioning of the sprinklers as identified.
Attempts to provide more permanent directed amounts of streaming water onto roof areas in order to cool the structure or extinguish fire include; U.S. Pat. No. 2,865,674, issued in the name of Jelmeland, which describes a combination of sprinkling and fire extinguishing apparatus and guttering which re-circulates water flow from a roof back through the sprinklers and U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,703, issued in the name of Valiant, which describes a spray cooling system for gamble roofs comprising a conduit mounted atop a roof area adjacent to the roof summit. U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,618, issued in the name of Hayes, describes a bush fire protection for a building comprising a sprinkler system which is installed around the perimeter of the building structure. These attempts can be cumbersome to install and be unsightly when compared to the backdrop of a home and manicured yard.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,379, issued in the name of Crowley, describes an exterior fire suppression system and method for installation comprising sprinkler system connected to a water supply which is mounted with the roof structure and substantially hidden from view when the system is inactive. Although the Crowley system provides a discreet method of fire protections it still suffers from various disadvantages as described above.
Other attempts have been made in the past to overcome these disadvantages and provide a means of protecting structures from fire, although the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so provides a means by which the building structure can be protected from fire and other hazards without the aforementioned problems. Among the relevant attempts to address these problems are several U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,754,600; 4,991,657; 5,165,482; 5,263,543; 5,732,511; and 6,065,546.
Additionally, ornamental designs for sprinklers and vents exist, particularly, U.S. Pat. No. D 542,407 and D 542,886. However, none of these designs are similar to the present invention.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffers from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Accordingly, there exists a need for a means to protect houses, buildings and other structures from adjacent flames or falling embers from nearby forest fires, wildfires. The development of the invention herein described fulfills this need.